Fire destroys base of air pollution study at Skaneateles farm

Gloria Wright/The Post-StandardA trailer on the Twin Birch Dairy at 1840 Benson Road, Skaneateles, caught fire Thursday. It is one of several research centers in the U.S. for studying methane gas. Cornell University operates the trailer, which also contains equipment from Purdue University.Skaneateles, NY — A fire Thursday in Skaneateles destroyed the local nerve center, but not the heart, of a national study of air pollution produced by farms.

Although the office trailer and science equipment at Twin Birch Dairy, 1840 Benson Road, were lost at a cost of perhaps $500,000, virtually all the data collected over the two-year National Air Emission Monitoring Study is safely stored hundreds of miles away, said Cornell University officials conducting the local research.

Also safe are barns that surrounded the trailer on three sides and the 1,000 dairy cattle they housed, Skaneateles Second Assistant Fire Chief Fred Squires said. Firefighters from Skaneateles and four other departments confined the blaze to the trailer despite frigid temperatures and howling winds, he said.

The Young family owns the farm, but the trailer and gear belonged to Purdue University, which led the $14.6 million National Air Emission Monitoring Study for several farm groups. Twin Birch was among five dairy farms nationwide to participate.

That project, which ended three months ago, sought to measure how much ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, dust and other compounds are emitted as livestock eat and excrete, and under what feeding, milking and weather conditions. The Cornell researchers started on another project to examine methane and nitrous oxide emissions for Dairy Management Inc., a non-profit dairy industry research group.

The scientists hope to construct computer models to predict how much of these pollutants a farm of any size may give off, said Curt Gooch, Cornell’s principal project investigator.

“We were due to finish on Sunday. We were within three days of completing the project,” Gooch said.

The fire ruined that timetable about 4:20 p.m. Thursday.

A device inside the trailer that controlled an electrical heat tape is believed to have shorted out, igniting books and papers on a desk below, Onondaga County Fire Coordinator Joe Rinefierd said. The heat tape kept moisture from ruining air samples as they were delivered by pipe line from barn fans to the analytical gear inside the trailer, project Site Manager Steve McGlynn said.

McGlynn wasn’t sure how much the lost gear was worth. He said he heard estimates of between $400,000 and $500,000.

All data were emailed each midnight to Purdue, so the only information lost was the numbers collected Thursday, Gooch said.

But officials had hoped to extend their research another month to explore air emissions from a manure digester and fertilizer storage lagoons at Twin Birch, McGlynn said.